Eternally Bound: An Essay on the Greatest Ransom

Earlier this week in my devotions I was reading through Leviticus of all places, that’s the third book in your bible, and really felt convicted. The themes of sin, ransom, and atonement were everywhere. Back in the days before Christ had come sins still were sins and a price had to be paid.

Leviticus 4:7-10

“The priest shall then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the bull's blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He shall remove all the fat from the bull of the sin offering—the fat that covers the inner parts or is connected to them, both kidneys with the fat on them near the loins, and the covering of the liver, which he will remove with the kidneys- just as the fat is removed from the ox sacrificed as a fellowship offering. Then the priest shall burn them on the altar of burnt offering”

That’s just an example of what we’re talking about here. For every sin, blood had to be paid, and the priest, as a mediator between God and man, would pay it by performing the right sacrifices which God gave to the Israelites through Moses. Now before you start freaking out (which I’m willing to bet most of you reading have, can’t imagine many of you find yourself in Leviticus during your daily devotionals), this isn’t anything new to you. Well, it shouldn’t be anything new to you. We, like the Israelites, are sinners. That sin has to be paid for so that we can receive that right standing with God. We aren’t able to pay that debt ourselves, so we require a priest to pay the penalty for us. And we have all of that in the person of Christ. Romans 3:23 defines our problem in saying that all have sinned and fallen short of the righteousness required by a holy God. 1 Timothy 2:5 says that Christ came as the one and only mediator between God and Man. 1 John 4:10 says that Jesus was sent as that sacrifice, thus cleansing us of our sin.

Now about that price, it says in Romans that the wages of sin is death. And in Mark 10:45 it says that Jesus came to be that ransom. We are all slaves to sin, held captive by our flesh, seekers of destruction in this desolate world. But Jesus’ sacrifice on that cross, his gruesome death pays the debt we owe for our sinfulness, bringing us into fellowship with a holy God, one that doesn’t tolerate sin. He sees us as clean because our flaws have already been paid in full by our Savior Redeemer Christ. This got me thinking about the whole idea of a ransom, and of atonement. The fact that God would willingly lay his life down, would endure 39 whips from a cat-of-nine-tails, would have three stakes driven through his wrists and his ankles, and have his side pierced, for us. God died so that we could be brought over from our communion with this world into a wholly giving of our souls to him. He paid the ultimate price.

What for? Think about this real fast, answer this question: How much time do you spend with God each day, ie. devos, prayer, biblestudies, etc. _____Got your answer? For me when this point was first given to me two weeks ago, I was deeply convicted, because my answer simply wasn’t enough. God died so we could experience an eternal relationship with him, so that we would give our lives over for him to use. He didn’t intend anything else. When God was in the garden and man was in perfect relationship with him, that was GOOD. He didn’t redeem us so that we could spend thirty minutes, an hour, even two with him a day. He requires our everything. Are we giving that to the Lord of Creation? We need to be.

So as an action step per se, can we not all commit to seek after God more earnestly, he deserves it. Let us repent, do a 180 degree turn from our sinfulness to the throne of Grace. Read His Word every day, for more than a few minutes. I urge you to take an hour before you start your day, yes a full hour, and give that to the Lord. It may seem like a lot, but how much time do we waste in front of the tv, video games, or Facebook? For parting words, a challenge: Ephesians 4:1; “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” God has bought us out of sin into full service to Him, Paul elsewhere describes himself as a bondservant and a slave. Live your life worthy of that calling, finish strong, have NO REGRETS.

-matt

Mission Costa Rica '09

As many of you know, I was gone these past two months serving the Lord in Los Guido, San Jose, Costa Rica. It was quite a trip, definitely life-changing. We got there on a Sunday, Day 0 as it is called by LeaderTreks, and had time to hang out, eat dinner and get an intro into just exactly what we would be doing during out stay.

Day 1 (monday) roles around, we wake up in the morning, cook and eat breakfast, and then are off to spend 45 minutes with God. That does sound like a lot of time, especially when most of us might not be used to spending that much time every day with the Lord. But it wasn't very difficult to adjust to, I found that desire to want to know God on a deeper level, and that pushed me onward. We were studying the Beatitudes, which turned out to be an amazing series of lessons, the first day we studied "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." We read through Luke 7:36-50 and talked about what it meant to be poor in spirit, what it meant to be desperate for God. The story of the woman who had nothing to offer, but was accepted by Christ really connected with me, and pushed me to take a step back and to live with humility. We then went to the worksite! Our project for the trip was building a road for a community that the government had denied support to. The people who lived on the street had raised all there own funds, bought all the supplies needed, and just needed to get it built. We all learned how to set up pearling, lay down the netting and the rebar, mix the concrete (which we did by hand), and finally get it to the finished product. We worked until 1:30 with a short lunch break and then we cleaned up, or rather started to as the daily rain came in from the mountains. It began to start raining, I looked straight up to the sky and said, "God hold off the rain until we finish on the worksite," and He did, because He is always faithful. Then we walked down the street to Iglesia de Deos, the Church of God, to host a VBS for the kids in the neighborhood, the first VBS that has ever been done in this community. We arrived at the church around 2:15ish so that we could check it out and set up before the kids arrived at three. Well, not exactly. We found out about 3:15 that the teacher was sick and that we wouldn't be doing the VBS that day after all. We left the church and walked down to a local park to invite some more kids and then turned to walk home, and the rain that God had been holding off since 1:30, started to fall, we got home a bit wet but started an early dinner, did team time which was our nightly group sessions where we went through the morning devos, evaluated how well we did that day, discussed leadership qualities in our growth journals, and did encouragement at the end. Thus was ended an eventful Day 1.

I won't give you a full blown day by day recap, that would take forever but I will let you know more on what went on. The first week we worked on the road in the morning and did a VBS (with the exception of monday) in the afternoon. Day 2, Isabella, our misionary partner who actually let us stay in her house for two weeks and live with her, prophecied over me in Spanish. I don't speak much Spanish or rather, Yo hable pecito Espanol, but I understood every word she said, the Spirit was clearly at work. Day 5, Friday, I was actually prophecied over again, in English this time, by Isabella's son Diego who was in his mid twenties I'd guesstimate. So within four days time I was prophecied over twice.... WOW. I was a bit surprised to say the very least. (and did I mention that Matt Johnson had his thumb sliced open by our LT intern when we were mixing concrete? Guess I forgot. It was a total accident and we all laughed about it later, but Matt was out of commission for both weeks when it came to hard physical labor. But he still worked his butt off, so I'm proud of him for that.)

We woke up at 4Am on Saturday to drive to Mt. Arenal and a zipline place for the weekend, it was a great change of pace and my worn out body definitely could use the rest. That night was pretty eventful as it finally dawned on me that I can't hold this team together, that I'm actually not in control of anything and that God will do exactly what he wants to do. God broke me of my pride that night, and from then onward I was able to more fully depend on God than anything I had to offer, that was the turning point of the trip.

Day 8 (the second monday) we started our new schedule, work from 9AM to 5PM, all day. It was a particularly hot morning, meaning that the clouds would roll in thicker and the rain would most likely be extremely intense. So we prayed all morning for the rain to stay away. A few of the team left to go to the grocery store less than two miles away after lunch and we kept working. And when the rain was right upon us we prayed again, most of us had been praying individually, but we asked God to keep the skies clear, and He answered. The clouds rolled in and the rain started to pour, everywhere but our street. If you looked up above your head, you could see a ring, clear and blue, of crystal clear skies in a circle right above us. God had created a hole in the sky and kept us dry as we did his work. The food crew got back an hour or so later, and they were wet. They had been rained on. It had actually poured buckets everywhere around us, including the grocery store that was just two miles away, just TWO MILES!

Day 10 the 5 adults that were with us left the worksite, telling us that it was our project, our time to step up and take ownership, our time to make a difference. So we worked our butts off and did all we could and worked quite possibly the hardest we worked the entire trip, only to find out that we had run out of water again, and that it wouldn't be on til 4 or 5PM and it wasn't even 3 yet. We took a break, came back later that evening, and finished our work.

I did mention we ran out of water just as a reminder of what I'm greatful of back home. We had days where we didn't have running water, we had days where both of the bathrooms in the house were out of commission, we had to go as long as a full week without pooping. I don't say that to be gross, but it was a struggle! Anyhow, that was a random tangent, back to the story.

Day 11 (thursday numero dos) We finished the road! And as if that wasn't cool enough, our ministry team through a block party for the entire street. People who hadn't spoken to eachother in TWENTY YEARS came out and were all talking and having a great time, eating some good food and watching the kids play. To see God do that was quite possibly the most powerful event I have ever experienced, a couple of teenage gringos had reunited a commnuity, we had seen the love of God in our lives, and reflected it out into the lives around us. After that day we came home, friday we had our last goodbye's to Isabella and her family, to Freddie and our neighbors, and that was that. I miss all of them. Will we ever cross path's again? I do not know. God willing we do, but if not, they have definitely shown me more about myself and what it means to follow Christ, so I am in their debts, Godbless.

Now that I've had a few days to decompress, to readjust to life as most of us know it: comfy beds, warm showers, a family of less than 15 people to live with on a daily basis, and frozen pizzas. I'm finding it really difficult this time around to come home. It's not that I don't appreciate home, I do, but I miss the life I lived in Costa Rica, I don't want to let that go. I've made a concerted effort to be set apart, to be different from who I once was. I'm in the word for at least an hour every day, and I'm working on living that missional lifestyle that Christ has called us to. There was so much more that happened on this trip, so much more lives changed by the Love of God, but if I would have continued to write we would have both been here all day. I compell you to come and ask me more, I want to tell it - to share my story with everyone. These above mentioned stories are just tidbits, God did so much more than you could ever imagine, than I could have hoped or desired. But I leave you with this, God is faithful always and He delights in his children. Expect God's Glory. Expect it and He will give it to you.

-matt

Prayer Points for Costa Rica!

As you may or may not know I'm going to be gone with my team from July 5-17 to Costa Rica and this is just some prayer points for our trip. We're going to be running a VBS the first week (mon-fri) as well as working on our work project for both weeks. We're going to be helping the community build a road which they have already started work on, I'm so excited! Over the weekend we'll be taking a short trip to some hot springs to relax and re-energize ourselves so please make sure to pray that we refocus ourselves heading into our last week. This trip is going to be great and I'm confident we won't return the same team.

Day 1

Sunday July 5

• Pray for safe travel, pray that the team and the luggage both arrive in Costa Rica alive and well. Also that the team would be able to adapt to the new surroundings.
• Team: Pray for the student leaders, Matt and Sarah, that they would have wisdom and be able to keep the team organized and focused by maintaining a daily schedule and keeping the team on track.

Day 2

Monday July 6

• Pray for a good assimilation into our new surroundings, that we would be ready and willing to do God’s work both on the worksite and at VBS.

• Team: Pray for the ministry team, Nathan and Bree, as the first day of VBS starts today. Pray for wisdom as they direct the team and also for a successful turnout.

Day 3

Tuesday July 7

• Team: Pray for the work team, Jake and Rachel, that they will take what they learned from the first day on the worksite on Monday and apply it so that the team will have a productive day on site.

Day 4

Wednesday July 8

• Team: Pray for the food team, Allie and Teri, that they will be able to adapt to obstacles they face that are unexpected and that the team will be well nourished.

Day 5

Thursday July 9

• Pray for an extra push of effort for the team both on the worksite and at VBS, pray that they don’t get discouraged or tired and that they would call on Christ for their strength.
• Team: Pray for the worship team, Matt, as the weekend nears that he would be instrumental in keeping the team focused on the Lord with all the other distractions they come in contact with each day.

Day 6

Friday July 10

• Team: Pray for the LeaderTreks staff Renee, Kevin, and Jeremy; that they would keep the team driven and help develop each student into a better leader.

Day 7

Saturday July 11

• Pray for safe travel on the weekend, that the team would be refreshed and ready to gear up for another week.
• Team: Pray for the adult leaders, Niki and Jordan, that they would continue to push the team by encouraging and challenging them to not settle for just good, but aim for great.

Day 8

Sunday July 12

• Pray for the community where we are staying, Los Guidos. Pray that we would leave a positive lasting impact and demonstrate the love of Christ with our actions
• Team: Pray the Cleaning/Water team, Michael and Kristin, that they would lead the team well during the weekend clean and keep the house and living environment clean and organized. A disheveled house makes the team look disrespectful and is a dour living environment.

Day 9

Monday July 13

• Pray for the entire team, that we would be mentally focused and not linger on the weekend, an unfocused team will prevent us from accomplishing our goals on the worksite and will prevent us from becoming the great team we strive to be.
• Team: Pray for the work team, Jake and Rachel, that they would step up and delegate jobs to the team members as well as casting the vision and to remind the team of its purpose.

Day 10

Tuesday July 14

• Team: Pray for the ministry team, Nathan and Bree, that they would engage and encourage the team and continue to play an integral role after the completion of VBS.

Day 11

Wednesday July 15

• Pray that the team as whole unit will press on giving our all and not settle for just mediocrity. Pray that we would push through weariness, frustration, and other obstacles to show others God’s love in motion as this is our last day on the worksite.
• Team: Pray for the worship team, Matt, that he would keep bring the team before the throne of Christ in worship, that the focus would be kept on God rather than ourselves. That any wounds would be healed and we would draw nearer to each other as we chase after God.

Day 12

Thursday July 16

• Pray for the team as a unit, that it would be finish strong by possibly getting more real with God than they ever have before, making this trip life-changing on themselves and the other members of the team.
• Team: Pray for the student leaders, Matt and Sarah, that they would be able to do everything in there power to push the team into a deeper relationship with Christ.

Day 13

Friday July 17

• Pray for safe travel home, and that we would continue to show Christ’s love through our interactions with others. Pray that this trip would not be a temporary “high” but that each team member will come home changed, and willing to continue his/her pursuit of Christ on a deeper level.
• Team: Pray for the adult leaders, that they would keep the team in order as we return home.

-matt

You're My Everything

You're My Everything

.v1.

You're all I am.

You're all I need.

Lord I need you now,

come rescue me.

.v2.

Don't wait a day.

Don't wait an hour.

Come fill me, Lord,

with your holy power.

.v3.

Lord I need you now

like I needed you then.

I need you always, forever, Amen.

.Chorus.

You make me want to dance,

You make me want to sing,

You make me want to shout "Lord, you're my everything!"

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It's my best one yet, or at least I love how it flows with the guitar and such. Just kinda came to me I guess. Like Matthew 12:34 says, out of an overflow of the heart the mouth speaks, I only wish these words were able to express it all. Lord, you're all I am. You're all I need. Lord I need you now, come rescue me.

-matt